Q. I'm planning a multi-city trip. How do I sign up for a fare alert for my trip?

A. When the airlines announce fare sales, they apply to round-trip routes. So finding a listed sale fare specifically for your multi-city route really isn't going to happen. That's why we don't have a place on our Newsletter page to sign up for alerts for multi-city itineraries.

Domestic Multi-City Trips In order for you to find sale fares for your trip, the stars are really going to have to align for you. Three things will have to happen. First, each leg of your trip has to be discounted as a roundtrip fare. Next, each of those discounted fares will also have to be available as a one-way trip for half the roundtrip price. And finally, the fare periods for all the routes have to coincide with your travel dates! In other words, a "perfect storm" of sale fares has to occur. Not impossible, but it could be tough.

International Multi-City Trips Believe it or not you might have a better chance to travel on the cheap with an international itinerary to multiple cities than a domestic one. The strategy is to get a great sale fare for a round-trip ticket to a city that has good sales often, such as London, Dublin, Paris and the like. Once you're there, use the cheaper local carriers for your trips around that part of the world. Return to the orlginal arrival city and use the return portion of the roundtrip ticket to get home to the US. You could really save a bundle this way. Leave plenty of time for your connections, because whenever you book travel as separately transacted itineraries in this manner, the airlines are not responsible to rebook or accommodate you in any way when you miss a flight because of another airline's lateness. It could a very expensive missed flight if it happens, wiping out all your previous savings and then some!